The Free Press, Mankato, MN

John Cross

Related Photos

  • John Cross

  • John Cross

    trout fishing

April 12, 2009

Area streams gear up for trout fishing

By John Cross

Minnesota’s first official fishing season opens next Saturday when the inland trout fishing season commences.

But before that happens in this neck of the woods, Craig Berberich of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ Waterville Fish Hatchery will need to back his truck up to each of the three spring-fed ponds just north of St. Peter and dump a sloshing load of rainbow trout, fresh from the DNR’s Lanesboro cold water fish hatchery, into them.

Next Friday, some 500 10-inch yearling rainbow trout will be stocked into each of the ponds. “We wait until the day before to discourage early anglers,” Berberich said.

Of course, trout that literally fell off the truck the day before aren’t exactly what a purist trout angler might prefer.

But in south-central Minnesota, where clear, cold spring water is a valuable commodity, most anglers understand that trout fishing in this neck of the woods is what it is: Put-and-take with an emphasis on the latter.

“We’ve done creel surveys of anglers at the ponds in the past,” Berberich said. “There’s always a little carry-over but 85 percent of the fish are caught within the first three days of stocking.”

To ensure a sustained fishery through the earliest part of the season, the DNR restocks the ponds on a periodic basis through May.

Berberich said the ponds will be stocked with 1,500 fish three times between April 17 and May 8, with a final stocking of 1,000 fish by May 22. By that time, much of the angling pressure transfers to area lakes.

Trout anglers who might look down upon the elbow-to-elbow environment of the ponds might consider checking out one of several trout streams in south-central Minnesota.

Gene Jeseritz, an assistant supervisor of the DNR’s Hutchinson fishery office, said three streams will be stocked with trout sometime next week.

Ramsey Creek at Redwood Falls, Ft. Ridgely Creek at Ft. Ridgely State Park and Spring/Hindeman Creek located several miles north of Sleepy Eye each will receive 300 brown trout and 300 rainbow trout.

Ramsey Creek has about a mile of designated trout water. Spring/Hindeman Creek has several miles of designated trout water. Both have marked easements to allow angler to gain access.

Fort Ridgely Creek is not designated as an official trout stream and only the section of the stream within the park will be stocked, Jeseritz said.

Finally, if hatchery trout that fell off the truck only days earlier aren’t your idea of fishing, consider Seven Mile Creek located mid-way between Mankato and St. Peter at the Nicollet County Park by the same name.

For years, the designated trout stream has been stocked annually with several thousand brown trout fingerlings.

By the time they reach catchable size, they are wild, wily and wary, making them anything but an easy catch.

Stream improvements over the years have included rock weirs to create scour holes and the placement of “lunker boxes,” the man-made equivalent of undercut banks so dearly loved by big brown trout.

Electro-fishing by DNR crews consistently has turned up plenty of catchable trout, along with some genuine lunkers, in the small stream.

But for anglers relegated to hook-and-line methods, fishing such intimate water requires stealth and stalking.



John Cross is a Free Press staff writer. Contact him at 344-6376 or by e-mail at jcross@mankatofreepress.com.

Text Only | Photo Reprints
John Cross